New plan for land along the Toms River

The Cedar Cove Marina is one of many properties officials hope to upgrade. After years of struggling to redevelop its riverfront areas along the Toms River, South Toms River's mayor and council have declared the area a redevelopment zone and have applied for nearly a million dollars in state grants, etc. to remake the dilapidated area.
South Toms River, NJ
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Doug Hood/Staff Photographer
(Photo: Gannett)

For years, run-down businesses and a boarded-up building sullied the waterfront at Mathis Veterans Memorial Park and along Route 166, which is known as Atlantic City Boulevard in the borough.

Now, Mayor Joseph M. Champagne, Borough Administrator/Clerk Joseph Kostecki and the Borough Council are hoping to change the look of the waterfront and the Route 166 corridor, which was recently dedicated as a redevelopment area.

"We would like to see more foot traffic in this area," Champagne said, standing on a walkway next to the river on a warm summer day. "We are seeking more ratables. The more ratables that there are, the less the burden on our taxpayers."

That's vital anywhere, but even more so in a small community such as South Toms River, where about 23 percent of the borough's 3,700 people live below the poverty level.

To entice businesses to make improvements the borough is offering a tax break.

The redevelopment area runs from the Toms River border to the Beachwood border along Route 166, Kostecki said. The borough has the power to provide economic incentives to businesses in the corridor that choose to upgrade and rehabilitate their stores. Businesses that choose to upgrade would be exempt from taxes on the improvements for five years, he said.

But the redevelopment designation also carries a big stick: the borough will be able to use eminent domain to take properties whose owners are unwilling to upgrade, Kostecki said.

One of the properties that the borough is targeting is Miller Yacht Sales, on the water at the corner of Route 166 and Crabbe Road.

"We'd like to see a brand new marina there, or a waterfront restaurant," Kostecki said.

He said businesses in the redevelopment zone will receive packets of information within the next two weeks that will detail the tax abatements permitted for companies that choose to upgrade their facades and buildings.

Panedta Heng, who owns The Wickery, a wicker furniture and repair store located on Flint Road in the redevelopment zone, said she was interested in learning more about the business incentives.

"I think it could help," she said.

As part of the redevelopment, the borough plans to install curbs, sidewalks, driveway aprons, decorative pedestrian lights and trees along Route 166 from Admiral Avenue to Herflicker Boulevard. Curbs and sidewalks are non-existent in most of that area.

Money for these improvements will come from a $600,000 grant that South Toms River expects to receive in federal Housing and Urban Development funds distributed by the state's Economic Development Authority. Last week, Champagne, Kostecki and other officials met with EDA representatives to finalize the grant process. Red Bank-based Maser Consulting will serve as the borough's redevelopment planner, while local developer D.J. D'Onofrio has officially been designated the redeveloper.

The borough also anticipates using some of those funds to complete a bike path along the old Barnegat Branch rail trail, built on the abandoned Barnegat Branch Division of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The borough's portion of the bike path will run along Route 166 from Admiral Avenue, where it currently ends, to Herflicker Boulevard at the Toms River border. Toms River could then extend the trail along its portion of the former railroad right-of-way to connect it to the Toms River Bus Depot and beyond, Kostecki said.

The borough hopes to break ground for the bike path in the fall, and have it completed by July 2015.

Additional improvements are also planned for wooded Green Acres property located across the river from Miller Yacht Sales. The borough intends to apply for grants from the state Department of Environmental Protection through a public access program, that will help complete a riverwalk path that would offer scenic views of the water. Docks located along the property will be rehabbed, with boat slips added, Kostecki said.

A revised ordinance adopted by the council allows special events to be held in Mathis Park, where previously they had been prohibited. A church fair was held there on a recent July weekend.

Clean-up of the Mathis Park area started in 2011 when an abandoned and boarded-up building that had long stood on the park property was finally torn down.

Then, earlier this year, South Toms River completed removal of the last of 115 boats that had were in the water near the Miller Yacht Sale's property, including some that had run aground and were perched on a patch of land along the water.

The Miller properties had fallen into "significant disrepair and decay," according to Robert Tarver, a local lawyer who represented the borough in negotiations with the marina's late owner, Donald Miller, and surviving family members. Some people were actually living on their boats in the area, even though it is not zoned for residential use and there are no proper sanitary facilities, according to the DEP.

The DEP said some boats were leaking oil and gas into the river, and those were removed after booms were placed around them to capture the contaminants

The borough started to pressure the owners to clean it up in 2012 and eventually an agreement was reached where the majority of the boats were removed from the property at no cost to the borough, according to Tarver. About 70 of the boats were resting on land, he said.

Two other boats, a yacht and a steel tugboat, which had been at the marina north of Crabbe Road since the 1980s, were destroyed by Allied Recycling of Mount Holly in the spring. The total cost was expected to be $11,750, according to Kostecki, who added the contractor has agreed to take a pay cut in exchange for the scrap metal. The DEP said it is paying for 75 percent of the costs, and Kostecki said the final bill for the borough will be about $1,700.

Champagne said he hopes the redevelopment will encourage residents of the borough to reclaim its waterfront.

"This is something that we have been looking forward to for a long time," the mayor said. "There is a lot of attention on South Toms River. We are thinking big."